Cain acknowledges settlement

Herman Cain confirmed Monday evening that he is aware of a payment made to a woman who claims he sexually harassed her while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association, after denying any knowledge of the case earlier in the day.

“…But then he said because there was no basis for this, we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement.” When van Susteren asked how much money was involved, Cain said: “Maybe three months’ salary. I don’t remember. It might have been two months. I do remember my general counsel saying we didn’t pay all of the money they demanded.”

Earlier in the day, Cain had told reporters he was unaware of any deal: “If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much. If there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers at the restaurant association.”

Still, Cain called stories about sexual harassment allegations against him “a witch hunt” and repeatedly said that he never harassed female employees.

“Number one, in all of my over 40 years of business experience, … I have never sexually harassed anyone,” Cain told The National Press Club. “Number two, while at the restaurant association, I was accused of sexual harassment. Falsely accused, I might add. I was falsely accused of sexual harassment, and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and human resource officer to handle it.”

“I have no idea,” he said. “We have no idea the source of this witch hunt, which is really what this is.”

He said there is no reason for the restaurant association to divulge more information about the story.

“As far as we’re concerned, enough said about the issue,” he said. “There’s nothing there to dig up.”

The Press Club appearance followed Cain’s Fox News interview earlier Monday morning, the first time he addressed the POLITICO story.

Cain told Fox he was “falsely accused” of sexual harassment while CEO of the National Restaurant Association and doesn’t know of any settlements paid to resolve such allegations.

“It is totally baseless and totally false,” Cain said. “Never have I ever committed any kind of sexual harassment.”

Cain said it’s possible that more sexual harassment allegations could be forthcoming, but that they would be baseless. “If more allegations come, I assure you, people will simply make them up. … The only other allegations will be trumped-up allegations. There is nothing else.”

Cain also said the campaign is working to schedule “an exclusive interview” with his wife of 43 years, Gloria, who has not appeared with him on the campaign trail.

Cain also acknowledged that the POLITICO story detailing the accusations against him may hurt his campaign.

“Some people are going to be turned off by this cloud that someone wanted to put over my campaign,” he said. “But a lot of people aren’t going to be turned off.”